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Ron Thomas

Somewhere around 1900, Eleazar Thomas migrated from Wales to settle in the coal-mining community of Dickson City, Pennsylvania where he met his wife Martha and had four children: Mary, Benjamin Llywellen, David Wesley, and, my father, “Buddy” (Arja Worthington) born in 1917.

Buddy’s two older brothers, Ben and Wesley, had each begun to work in the mines at the age of nine but Martha refused to allow Buddy, her youngest son, to join them, or so goes the official family story. Martha took her children to her sister’s boarding house in Newark, New Jersey; Eleazar joined them sometime later. It was there that my father met Helen Edna O’Connell, cousin of his friend Terry Foy, Jr. and they were married in 1940. I was born in 1942, and my brother Glenn in 1944.

Bud was a self-taught amateur pianist who deduced the laws of harmony and melody from observing and analyzing piano roll performances. His mother, Martha, and sister, Mary, sang duets to his accompaniments at home. He was deeply attached to the musical traditions into which he was born. He and his brother David Wesley (“Wes”) exchanged records, listened to music together, and clashed noisily over their often conflicting musical convictions and opinions. I grew up listening to Buddy’s piano playing and record collection which contained classical and romantic music and also the great master piano stylists of early 20th century American jazz. My mother too loved music, her taste indicating a slightly more adventurous sensibility, Errol Garner and Reinhold Gliere, for example.

The first books I read were in my parents’ library: Taylor Caldwell, John O’Hara, Daphne DuMaurier, Ben Ames Williams, the Rubaiyat, Oliver Goldsmith, the Psalms of the Bible, Deems Taylor’s essays on music, Shakespeare, poems of Shelley. My mother took me to the Public Library early and when I was old enough, I eagerly began to explore it on my own. In the beginning reading was a kind of competition I engaged in with myself. Norman Mailer’s Naked and the Dead, was the first grown-up book I completed (followed very quickly by The Young Lions) and I was very proud. I loved air war adventures such as Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. I joined the Civil Air Patrol still in post-war operation. I was sent a Directory of Silhouetted International Aircraft which I dutifully carried up to our roof, searching the New Jersey skies for Enemy Aircraft.

Buddy started me playing piano when I was three or four years old. I was able to improvise music at the piano early. I know he taught me this but I have no recollection of how! Maybe I just knew. Piano lessons followed in 1948 when I was six from Gladys Ogden who instructed me in the rudiments of reading music, practicing, and playing piano pieces.

Paul Colombo: Rio Crystal

Read "Rio Crystal" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
September 4, 2021

Rio Crystal is the perfect title for this bright and clear, warm and sunny set led by guitarist Paul Colombo. Its frontline pairs Colombo's nimble guitar with keyboardist Ron Thomas, supported by bassist Andy Alonso and drummer Chris Loser, in a series of jazzy instrumental workouts. It's uncomplicated swing, and the emotional directness and honesty with which the principals play, turn Rio Crystal from jazz fusion into genuine (instrumental) soul music. The title track was the first tune ...

Album Review

Paul Colombo Group: Rio Crystal

Read "Rio Crystal" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
February 4, 2021

Paul Colombo's debut, Rio Crystal, comes about because his fellow guitarist, Pat Martino, released an album called Pat Martino/Live! (Muse Records, 1972). When Colombo heard Martino's sound, the then fifteen year old aspiring musician's path to jazz artistry came into focus. The keyboardist on Martino's 1972 LP was Ron Thomas, who played Fender Rhodes on Pat Martino/Live! He went on to become an adventurous and artistically successful--if somewhat underrecognized--jazz (and beyond) player in his own right, with the ...

Building a Jazz Library

Shining A Light On Pianist Ron Thomas

by Dan McClenaghan
May 18, 2020

Pianist / composer Ron Thomas (b. 1942), was introduced to the piano by his father, Buddy, a self-taught player who learned the art of the ivories by analyzing piano roll performances. Ron was, according to his biography, three or four years old at the time. Those early lessons took root, and then along came Marilyn Monroe. In 1957, Thomas had the good fortune to see The Seven Year Itch, a film that featured Monroe, and a soundtrack that included Sergei ...

Reassessing

Scenes From A Voyage To Arcturus

by Dan McClenaghan
May 10, 2020

Scottish writer David Lindsay published his A Voyage To Arcturus in 1920. It is said to have influenced everyone from C.S. Lewis in the writing of his Space Trilogy to J.R.R. Tolkien to Clive Barker. The story concerns a character Muskull and his fantastical journey across the planet Tormance that orbits the star Arcturus. And while the external landscapes encountered are surreal, so too are Muskill's inner landscapes, and the music. “Lindsay's fantasy eludes analysis," pianist/composer Ron Thomas ...

Album Review

John Vanore: Primary Colors

Read "Primary Colors" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
March 4, 2020

These recordings come from the mid-80s, a time when mixing jazz and electronics was still a fairly radical idea. They have trumpeter John Vanore marrying his solo lines to electronic embellishments performed by pianist Ron Thomas on a Yamaha DX-7 synthesizer and other keyboards. Nothing here is startling by modern standards, but there are still some interesting sounds and experiments present. The electronic effects mix in lightly on several tracks. “Yesterdays" and “A Time for Love" are basically ...

Album Review

John Vanore: Primary Colors

Read "Primary Colors" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
February 13, 2020

This beautiful duet set recorded by trumpeter John Vanore and pianist Ron Thomas serves as a showcase for auspicious beginnings, for both artists. The music for Primary Colors was recorded in 1984-85. Both of the players evolved into higher profiles, finding their individual places in jazz in the twenty-first century--Vanore with, mostly, his large ensemble writing, influenced by saxophonist/orchestrator Oliver Nelson on albums like Stolen Moments: Celebrating Oliver Nelson (Acoustical Concepts, 2017) and Contagious Words (Acoustical Concepts, 2011). For his ...

Album Review

Ron Thomas / Paul Klinefelter: Duo

by Budd Kopman
October 27, 2016

One of the wonderful things about jazz is that it can be appreciated from more than one angle, oftentimes simultaneously: pure entertainment, art as entertainment, art as beauty and art as intellect among others. Some of this, of course, relates to music in general, but jazz as a genre has moved beyond any stylistic boundaries to the point where no one can claim any particular sub-genre to represent “jazz." This push-pull aspect of jazz allows a player to ...

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Recording

Ron Thomas + Paul Klinefelter: "Blues for Zarathustra" on Art of Life Records

Source: All About Jazz
April 16, 2008

Now available for ordering via our web site's secure server Following his two previous Trio releases on Art of Life Records, Music In Three Parts (AL1010-2) and Doloroso (AL1021-2), “Blues for Zarathustra" finds pianist Ron Thomas in a duo setting with acoustic bassist Paul Klinefelter performing six Jazz standards and one original composition. Ron and Paul perform the songs “Gentle Rain" (Luiz Bonfa), “Time Remembered" (Bill Evans), “Yardbird Suite" (Charlie Parker), “You Must Believe in Spring" (Legrand, Demy & Bergman), ...
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149

Recording

Ron Thomas Trio-"Doloroso" Art of Life Records AL1021-2 CD

Source: All About Jazz
April 28, 2006

Ron Thomas Trio-"Doloroso" Art of Life Records AL1021-2 CD

Now available for ordering via our web site's secure server!!

Following in the footsteps of their previous Art of Life Records release, Music In Three Parts (AL1010-2), Doloroso was recorded in May of 2005 and features Tony Marino on bass and Joe Mullen on drums.

The concept utilized throughout Doloroso is based upon improvising freely (no specific chords and measures) within the loose framework of a pre-determined genre-piece such as a ...
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133

Recording

The Ron Thomas Trio's "Music In Three Parts" on Art of Life Records

Source: All About Jazz
October 21, 2004

Art of Life Records is proud to announce our latest CD release. The Ron Thomas Trio: Music In Three Parts AL1010-2 Ron Thomas' newest project for Art of Life Records, Music In Three Parts, was recorded on November 12, 2003 and features Paul Klinefelter on bass and Joe Mullen on drums. The pieces on Music In Three Parts are based on only three different simple musical figures. The three Impromptu's are based on a figure in D minor, the two ...
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